Musical instrument.



PATENTED NOV. 17, 1903.

H. E. HIBSHMAN. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT,

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 6. 190a.

N0 MODEL.

W17 NFSSES 'provement.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY EBERLY HIBSHMAN, OF NEWARK, NENV JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO CLARENCE JAMES MCCUAIG, OF MONTREAL, CANADA.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 744,546, dated November 17, 1903.

Application filed March 6, 1903. Serial No. 146,501. (No model.) i

To all whom, itv may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY EBERLY HIBSH- MAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Musical Instrument, of which the followingisafull,clear,andexactdescription.

The invention relates to reed instruments of the mouth-harmonica type; and its object is to provide a new and improved musical instrument which is simple and durable in construction and arranged to enable a person to properly execute a piece of music with the aid of a perforated. music-sheet without requiring practice or knowledge of music.

The invention consists of novel features and parts and combiuationsof the same, as will be more fully described hereinafter and then pointed out in the claims.

A practical embodiment of the invention is represented in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

,Figure 1 is a perspective view of the im- Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same, showing the cover open and parts in section. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the improvement on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a sectional plan view of the same on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

The musical instrument is mounted in a suitably-constructed casing A, having a perforated back A, a hinged cover B at the front, and a handle at the bottom for the operator to conveniently take hold of and properly support the casing by the use of one hand.

Within the casing A is secured a horizontally-disposed reed-block D, having suitable reeds preferably arranged in chromatic or other scale, and the mouth of the said reedblockD forms a tracker-board for the passage of a perforated music-sheet E, u nwinding from a drum F and winding up on a drum G, as plainly indicated in Fig. 3. The drums F and G are located on opposite sides of the reed-block D, and are arranged relative to the tracker-board, so that the music-sheet E is firmly stretched over the tracker-board at the time the music-sheet is wound up on the drum Gand unwound from the drum F. The drums F and G rotate in unison, and for this purpose gear-wheels H and H are provided, rotating with the drums and in mesh with each other, and the shaft G of the drum G extends to one side of the casing A and is provided at its outer end with a removable crank-arm I, under the control of the operator, so that when the crank-arm I is turned both drums G and F are rotated in unison for causing the music-sheet to travel over the tracker-board, as above explained.

The front face of the cover B is formed into a mouthpiece B, from which leads the narrow opening B of an air-passage, widening on the back of the cover, as at B and surrounded by a wall B", projecting from the inner face of the cover B, as plainly indicated in the drawings, the said wall B being located directly opposite the tracker-board, and the face of the wall is preferably covered with felt or other soft material, so as to engage that portion of the music-sheet- E passing over the tracker-board at the time. Now when air is blown by the mouth of the performer through the air-passage, then this air passes through the registering perforations in the music-sheet E into the reed-cells of the reed-block D to sound the reeds therein, it being also understood that on drawing air through the said air-passage the reeds are sounded according to the perforations in the music-sheet registering with corresponding air-cells. Thus by blowing air into or drawing air through the air-passage the corresponding reeds in the reed block D are sounded, and the music performed corresponds to the music indicated by the perforations in the music-sheet E, caused to travel between the tracker-board and the wall 13 by the operator turning the crank-arm I correspondingly. Now, according to the music to be performed, the time may be varied by the operator turning the crank-arm I faster or slower.

In order to permit a convenientinterchange of music-sheets E, the drum F is removably mountedin the casing, and for this purpose the shaftl of. the gear-wheel H has a square end engaging 6t. corresponding socket in one endcof the drum F, and the other end of the i 16i til en we ie prepeiiy sei ee. -eii-beere, eeeerdieg'te the e perfermeii.

i mueie te b be sheit J ef the gear-whee H is eeci prev'eed with seemepiying she ei'ee gem-1D be dispeneee with, as the CIB,H1{ELZ"U1 X eppiied to either eeeft' G r L fe; trim. eoi'i'espem'iiug' iii-e11 be Wind up the mueiesheet.

Iiievieg thus described. my invention, 1i claim new and desire to secure by Lefi'ners Peieni;----

1. A ieeeieel ineiremee z eeprisieg a eieek f e zit its mouth wiiaii e "L beei'ni for we ei pei'fer ,iiesheet, e memhpieee 02120 the m sic-sheet directly ever. the Becker- 002 91131 the said meuiiipieee having eiiapeseege which is smell the outer face of the memi piece and widees en the inner Le regiefer with eii eeile in the reed-bleak, as set feith.

2. A musical instrument eempeieing F6661- Meek, form e ei; its mouth with Meeker-- amed for the piece fittieg ente me musicef e pei'femted Lena izhe inner false, to vegister Wiaii eiie n the i'eed-eieek, maneeiiy -i instrument eem .eieg ees- 2, performed back and. e eeve'r preeee ferme-fi with. an air-- file from; face ef the @i'JVGi.

iaiiereef.

ide-led er-Eon of the 3 ed. fiee e; 2E2." the ei e; eerryie e meek-arm am euizei le seeing, enci geer-wiieeie en the time; i with each other, as set forth.

5, A musiee-i ieeummeni eemprieing; a. we ing having a perferated bask and a, eeverprevided with a mouthpiece formed with an airpaseege, narrow at the from face of the eever end; gradueiiy widening to the rem? thereof,

secured in wiie easing;-

E1 e i' ieeerd in eiinement with eer Wiriene peiiien ef the air-passage, drums jem'neled in the seeing on opposite sides of the reed-block the shaftef one of the drums carrying a emekei'm en the outside of the cesing, and ene of the drums being remevebiy held in the easing, and geer-wheeis en the drum, in mesh with each other, as set fel'bh.

in teetimeny whereof I have signed m" meme te this specification in the pi'esenee of two subscribing witnesses. v

HENRY EBERLY HIBSHMAN.

ii i'meeseez T3320. HOSTER, EYERARD BOLTON MARSHALL. 

